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4.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 4
Concept selection
• How can the team choose the best
concept, given that the designs are still
quite abstract?
• How can a decision be made that is
embraced by the whole team?
• How can desirable attributes of otherwise
weak concepts be identified and used?
• How can the decision-making process be
documented?

5.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 5
Choosing a concept
All teams use some method for choosing a
concept
• External decisions:
– Concepts are turned over to the customer,
client, or some other external entity for
selection.
• Product Champion:
– An influential member of the product
development team chooses a concept based
on personal preferences.

6.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 6
Choosing a concept (cont)
• Intuition:
– The concept is chosen by its ‘feel’.
Explicit trade-off criteria are not used.
Concept just ‘seems better’.
• Multivoting:
– Each member of the team votes for several
concepts. The concept with the most votes
wins.

7.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 7
Choosing a concept (cont)
• Pros and cons:
– The team lists the strengths and weaknesses of each
concept and makes a choice based upon group
opinion.
• Prototype and test:
– The organization builds and tests prototypes of each
concept, making a selection based upon test data.
– The team rates each concept against prespecified
selection criteria, which may be weighted.

18.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 18
Structured method
• Effective group decision-making:
– Within the development team, organizational
philosophy and guidelines, willingness of
members to participate, and team member’s
experience may constrain concept selection.
– A structured method encourages decision-
making based on objective criteria and
minimizes the likelihood that arbitrary or
personal factors are allowed to influence the
product concept.

19.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 19
Structured method
• Documenting the decision-making
process:
– A structured method results in a readily
understood archive of the rationale behind
concept decisions.
This record is useful for assimilating new
team members and for quickly assessing the
impact of changes in customer needs or in the
available alternatives.

20.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 20
Overview of methodology
• The concept selection process is based on
two methodologies:
– Concept Screening
– Concept Scoring
• Concept screening is just for narrowing the
number of concepts
• For a small number of concepts, go
directly to concept scoring

25.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 25
Concept Screening
• Rank the concepts
– The sum of all the “better than”
“same as” and “worse than”
• Combine and improve the concepts
– Is there a concept that is generally good but
degraded by one bad feature?
Can a minor modification improve the overall
concept while remaining distinct from the other
concepts?

26.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 26
Concept Screening
• Are there two concepts which can be
combined to preserve the “better than”
qualities while annulling the “worse than”
qualities?

27.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 27
Concept Screening
• Select one or more concepts
– The number of concepts selected for further
review will be limited by team resources
(personel, money, and time)
– The team must clarify which issues need to
be investigated further before a final selection
can be made.

28.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 28
Concept Screening
• Reflect on the results and the process
– All of the team members should be
comfortable with the outcome

30.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 30
Remember…
The goal of concept selection is not to
• Select the best concept.
The goal of concept selection is to
• Develop the best concept.
So remember to combine and refine the
concepts to develop better ones.

37.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 37
Caveats
• Beware of the best "average" product.
• Perform concept selection for each different
customer group and compare results.
• Check sensitivity of selection to the
importance weightings and ratings.
• May want to use all of detailed requirements in
final stages of selection.
• Note features which can be applied to other
concepts.

39.
ETM 551 Concept Selection 39
Summary
• Concept scoring uses weighted selection criteria
and a finer rating scale.
• Both screening and scoring use a matrix as the
basis of a six-step process
– Prepare the selection matrix
– Rate the cfoncepts
– Rank the concepts
– Combine and improve the concepts
– Select one or more concepts
– Reflect on the results and the process